On July 8, 2021, Coal India Ltd (CIL) signed an agreement for the purchase of 11 20-cubic metre Russian rope shovels for nearly Rs 1,462 crore with Iz-Kartex named after P.G.Korbokov Ltd, a Russian shovel manufacturing company.
- The installation and commissioning of the shovels will be done by Iz-Kartex.
- Rope shovels are quite useful for loading of material in the opencast (OC) mines.
Key Points:
i.This purchase is on the lines of the CIL’s process of modernizing its heavy earth moving machinery fleet.
ii.The first machine will be delivered in June 2022 while the delivery of all electric rope shovels will be concluded by September 2023.
iii.All the rope shovels will be used for the OC projects of CIL arm Northern Coalfields Ltd (NCL).
- 9 machines will be operationalized in Nigahi, Dudhichua and Jayant Madhya Pradesh (MP), of with a ration of 3 each while one each will be used in Khadia (MP & Uttar Pradesh) and Amlorhi (MP).
- NCL already has operational 9 shovels and with the latest pact this number will rise to 20.
Epsilon Carbon commissions Country’s first integrated Carbon Black complex
India’s first integrated carbon black complex has successfully commissioned its operations in Bellary, Karnataka. It has been set up by Epsilon Carbon Private Limited (ECPL), a coal tar derivatives Indian company with estimated investment of Rs 550 cr.
- This unit has an annual production capacity of 115,000 tonnes consisting of Tread and Carcass grades of ASTM (American Society for Testing And Materials) carbon blacks for tyre, non-tyre rubber and plastic masterbatch partners globally.
Complex is regarded as Highly Ecological:
This complex is also a first-of-its-kind manufacturing facility in India, which uses waste coke oven gas from the steel plant as a fuel and tail-gas from the Carbon black unit is fed back to the steel complex for pre-heating operations.
- Other plants use high Sulphur feedstock (3% Sulphur), this unit uses captive low-Sulphur feedstock (0.3-0.5% Sulphur).
- With this, a benchmark has been set in low SOx (Sulfur oxide)/NOx (Nitrogen Oxides) and CO2 (Carbon dioxide) emissions.
The above features make this complex as highly ecological and best in class.
Key Points:
i.As part of Phase 2, Epsilon will further expand its capacity by another 65,000TPA, with additional investment of Rs. 350 crores. This will make the total investment close to Rs. 900 crores.
ii.Epsilon aims to expand its capacity of Carbon Black to total of 300,000 TPA, at full capacity which will make it India’s largest single location carbon black plant.
Recent Related News:
In April, CIL signed its first solar power purchase agreement for the sale of 100 MW solar power with Gujarat Urja Vikas Nigam Ltd (GUVNL) with a Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for 25 years.
About Epsilon Carbon Private Limited:
Establishment– 2010
Managing Director (MD)– Vikram Handa
Headquarter– Mumbai, Maharashtra
About Coal India Limited (CIL):
It is Maharatna Public Sector Undertaking (PSU)
Establishment– 1975
Chairman– Pramod Agrawal
Headquarter– Kolkata, West Bengal
